Yesterday Russian Federation Human Right ombudsman Oleg Mironov presented the
not very comforting results of last year: the situation in the country regarding
human rights remains unsatisfactory.

The stream of complaints arriving in the ombudsman's apparatus has reached
3,000 per month and keeps on growing. Mironov predicts that there will be an
enormous number of violations in the upcoming federal elections.

The ombudsman links the troubles of Russians first of all with the difficult
social-economic situation and the unfulfilled obligations of the authorities,
for example, when people die of cold in their own apartments. Oleg Mironov has
also told journalists about the unsatisfactory situation in our country's human
rights. He is not against "billions in profits in the pockets of the
oligarchs, but not due to the cost of oil itself. Where is the natural
rent?" The younger generation is practically deprived of access to cultural
valuables (R200 stipend as opposed to an R600 theater ticket). The ombudsman
notes that almost 40 percent of the country's population has incomes lower than
the minimum standard of living and 30 percent at the minimum level. Thus the
majority of Russia's population lives either in poverty or on the edge of
poverty.

Many of the contradictions, the ombudsman remarked, are concentrated in
Chechnya. On one hand there is the anticonstitutional activity of the fighters,
and on the other the malfeasance on the part of the federal authorities. Mironov
supports in principle carrying out a referendum in Chechnya and thinks it is
impossible to put it off. However the draft constitution's concepts of
"sovereignty," "citizens of the Chechen republic" and too
much authority of the president pique his curiosity.